How do you perform water changes?
- Thread starter LowCel
- Start date
My tanks are in my basement. I use a gravel vacuum and buckets. I do one tank on Saturday and the other on Sunday. It only takes about a half an hour each tank.
I try to do 50% water changes weekly on 3 tanks.
I have a 75 in living room, 75 and 20H in basement.
I use the Lee brand equivalent of the Python, my kitchen tap water pressure is for sh*t so to do the living room tank I hook up the hose to the utility tub in the basement (gravity is a wonderful thing) and vacuum the gravel. disconnect hose, move it to kitchen, match water temp by hand, start filling tank. Add StressCoat appropriate to the amount of water removed as I begin filling. While the tank is filling I clean or change filter media on one filter (2 EMP 400's).
For basement tanks same procedure but just using the utility sink with the Lee vac. Clean/change filter media as tank fills.
I also try to clean the tops every month or so.
I have a 75 in living room, 75 and 20H in basement.
I use the Lee brand equivalent of the Python, my kitchen tap water pressure is for sh*t so to do the living room tank I hook up the hose to the utility tub in the basement (gravity is a wonderful thing) and vacuum the gravel. disconnect hose, move it to kitchen, match water temp by hand, start filling tank. Add StressCoat appropriate to the amount of water removed as I begin filling. While the tank is filling I clean or change filter media on one filter (2 EMP 400's).
For basement tanks same procedure but just using the utility sink with the Lee vac. Clean/change filter media as tank fills.
I also try to clean the tops every month or so.
Wulfonce;2996341; said:Every week and a half:
1) crack open a beer
2) rinse off gravel vac
3) sweep the gravel until I've roughly taken out 1/3rd of the water
4) dump water down toilet
5) crack open another beer
6) add water conditioner to the 5g bucket
7) fill bucket checking water temp with hand (I can get it accurate to within 2 degrees fahrenheit nearly every time)
8) let water sit while cleaning the filter components
9) refill tank
10) check water temp and re-check after 15 min
Thats my routine.
Step one makes water changes that much more tolerable. Step 5 improves the system dramatically. If you have low water pressure, you may be repeating step 5 more often. If you repeat too often, you have step 11 (Soak up water out of the carpet)
Normally me and wife share it, she'll do a partial change(10% in the week) when I'm at work, then on a Sunday we'll do a big on 30-40%. I'll drain the tanks as she fills them back up, the whole process takes less than an hour, we've got a good routine
1. Go down to basement.
2. Oh wait.... I don't have to do water changes. They happen automatically.
LOL
2. Oh wait.... I don't have to do water changes. They happen automatically.
LOL
I have an extra piece of hose and connect it to the output of my fx5 to drain the tank. I can run the hose out the window into the yard or run to the sink to drain. I add 3 capfuls of Prime once the tank is 3/4 empty. Then run a python hose to hte tank to fill. It takes an hour to fill since my water pressure is crap. Only takes about 10-15 minutes to drain and don't have to worry about sucking up fish or fish eyes.
1.Siphon the water out into a bucket
2.Throw away water in bucket
3.Fill bucket
4.Add dechlor in bucket only
5.Pour in tank
My pebble-gravel keeps getting stuck in the siphon tho =[
2.Throw away water in bucket
3.Fill bucket
4.Add dechlor in bucket only
5.Pour in tank
My pebble-gravel keeps getting stuck in the siphon tho =[
I'm gonna have to change my water changing routine LOL. My bucket's handle snapped yesterday while it was full of water. Thankfully only a little was spilled.
